Watchers

Jon Hess directed this 1988 horror and science fiction film, adapted from Dean Koontz's novel. A teenage boy, Travis Cornell, takes in a stray dog and gradually realizes the animal is no ordinary pet: it is highly intelligent, having escaped from a genetics research laboratory. What Travis does not know is that the dog is being pursued by another escapee from the same facility, a far more dangerous creature. With Nora, his companion, Travis tries to protect the dog from the pursuit closing in on them.

The film stars Corey Haim as Travis, Barbara Williams as Nora, and Michael Ironside as Lem Johnson, with a credited cast of twenty-eight and a crew of fifty-two. It was produced by Universal Pictures, Carolco Pictures, Concorde Pictures and Rose & Ruby Productions, running ninety-one minutes. Watchers was Jon Hess's first feature, followed a decade later by Mars. On TMDB it holds a rating of 5.4 out of 10 from 107 votes.